The general officer quoted in the article isn't only smoking dogfood he's drinking the bongwater. His claim that ANYBODY is parachuting into North Korea is right up there with Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny conspired with George Soros to give us Barack Hussein Obama as revenge on the American people for succumbing to George Bush's mind control techniques.

It's telling that the Telegraph posts a pictures of regular Marine grunts unloading an Amphtrack. Heads up Newsboys - THIS is what Special Forces soldiers in Korea look like:

Soldiers of 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the Republic of Korea 11th Special Forces Brigade training near Gwangyang, South Korea - notice they are wearing CPOGs (Chemical Protective Outerwear Garments) - an indication of anticipated NorKorCom response to the presence of US/ROK SF on the battlefield. (Andrew Kosterman/ U.S. Army )

This ain't World War II occupied France - the North Korean airspace & coastline is the most seamless, heavily-fortified on Earth. They have radar, TONS of anti-aircraft (nap-of-the-Earth helo infil not an option they stretch cables between hilltops) and they literally sweep their beaches twice a day, for evidence of beach landings. When I was in 1st Bn/1st SFG in Okinawa our no shit go-to-war plan for N. Korea involved: A) infiltrate by parachute or sub-surface/over-the-beach, and B) after the sun comes up, die in place (and try to take as many of them with you as possible).

North Korean Special Forces: these guys do NOT f*ck around.

North Korea has increased the number of its special warfare forces and battle tanks over the last two years as part of efforts to improve both conventional and asymmetrical military capabilities against South Korea. According to the South Korean Ministry of National Defense 2010 Defense White Paper, the number of North Korean special warfare forces has increased by 20,000 to 200,000.

Bottom Line: if there were any validity to this story we wouldn't be hearing it from this bozo clown one-star general we'd be learning about it as they paraded the RoK/US SF infiltrators before the cameras at their propaganda show trials.

Anyway the commander of US Army SF in Korea is a major, not a one-star. I suspect the journo's who filed this story got the officer's duty position mixed up, but that's easy enough to do; Special Operations chains-of-command are notoriously confusing, even to the soldiers within those units. I suspect we do that on purpose, in keeping with the sentiments expressed by a Wehrmacht general: "War is Chaos, and the reason the American Army excells at War is because they practice Chaos on a daily basis."

I was recently approached for security guidance regarding travel to the Palestinian Territories. I myself have traveled thru Gaza, but that was way back when Israeli paratroopers were still patrolling the place, so I reached out to my contact in Israel; his assessment is that the PA is clearly enemy territory and its probably safer to travel to Iran or North Korea than it is to go to the Gaza Strip. My professional advice regarding the West Bank is to restrict travel to only that which is absolutely necessary. My perception is that PA is not as challenging a destination as Gaza, although it is DEFINITELY deep inside Indian country. - S.L.

Gaza

Ramallah, capital of the West Bank in the occupied Palestinian territory

West Bank, Hebron

Hello Sean -

Thanks for your contributions to security measures to be taken while traveling to the Middle East. I am still concerned over the Israel/Iran uranium purification issue that has gotten the attention of the P5+1 countries with the disclosure that enrichment has reached 27 per cent. Hopefully, talks will continue and the rather significant build up of US troops in Israel is not a sign of an imminent strike. Any thoughts of whether a visit to Israel and the West Bank over the next two weeks should be avoided? I welcome your perceptions.

Very best regards for a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend,
Neilsson

Iran Uranium Purification:

There is no indication at this time that Iran has weaponized any of its nuclear material. Historically nuclear weapons serve as an effective deterrence, and Israel possesses a formidable arsenal. Despite Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric, the clerical rulers of Iran are aware of Israel’s capability and willingness to respond - plus the certainty of a US response - to any offensive move on their behalf. However, Iran has come to appreciate the powerful value of a potential nuclear capability, and continues to play this issue to gain leverage toward their primary geo-political goal, which is to become the major regional power as the United States withdraws from the Middle East.

“Significant Build-Up of US troops in Israel”:

This appears to be a reference to a missile defense exercise announced in January, scheduled for this spring, and subsequently postponed indefinitely. This is not a sign of an eminent strike, or even an escalation of regional tensions. Considering that the US has few if any troops in Israel at any given point in recent history, the presence of a single Patriot missile battery could be considered a “significant build up of US troops”. Given the base facilities available to the US – Diego Garcia, carriers in the Gulf, etc – any likely US strike on Iran would not necessarily be launched from Israel.

It is significant that in the 32+ years of the Iran Revolution, Iran has not launched a single strategic missile at Israel from its own territory (there have been tactical short-range missile launched out of southern Lebanon by Iranian proxies i.e. Hezbollah). At this time Iranian strategic missiles are only equipped with conventional warheads; i.e. non-nuclear explosives, and as such represent terror weapons at best. In other words, it is possible to be under missile attack, one city block away from a missile strike, and remain completely unharmed.

Worst Course of Action:

In response to indications that Iran has developed nuclear weapons, and mated them onto strategic missiles, Israel and/or the United States launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran. Iran responds with whatever nuclear weapons survive initial strikes, and one or more warheads reach Israeli and/or European cities. Israel and/or the United States - and possibly NATO allies - conduct limited nuclear response against Iran, followed up by conventional military engagement.

Most Likely Course of Action:

Iran continues to “tightrope walk on a tripwire” - betting against a pre-emptive Israeli and/or US strike as it flexes its muscle throughout the region. Continuation of limited actions designed to mitigate the Iranian threat, such as the sabotage of a missile production facility in February of this year, and the Stuxnet virus cyber attack in 2010.

Comment:

In February of this year, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta stated that “Israel has indicated that they’re considering this . . . . (a strike against Iran in April, May or June) . . . and we have indicated our concerns.” Although the upcoming US elections provide for some room for speculation; i.e. if poll numbers swing downward will a desperate incumbent launch a pre-emptive strike in order to ensure re-election? This is an extreme contingency, has no precedent in US history, and in any case the polls are not anywhere near levels required to initiate such a desperate political ploy.

Here we have the remarkable spectacle of a credentialled liberal media darling explaining why he is "uncomfortable" in calling America's fallen military members "heroes."

Hayes is worried that doing so is "rhetorically proximate" to justifications for more war.

HEADS UP YOU LIBERAL PUKE:

I've got news for you, Liberal newsboy: you are a worthless oxygen thief, not worthy to carry the gear of men & women better than you, who died facing the enemy on a thousand distant battlefields so that you can enjoy the freedoms you so obviously take for granted.

What about the soldier's of Washington's Continental Army, and the sailors and militiamen of the Revolutionary War? Do they qualify for heroes?

What about the soldiers, sailors, airmen & marines who gave their lives to end fascism in Germany, Italy and Japan? The soldiers who liberated Auschwitz? Are they not heroes, each and every one of them?

What about the warriors who gave their lives in the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq? And in all wars to liberate the oppressed, all the way back to Thermopylae?

You know what your problem is, newsboy? You've never lived. You've obviously never seen suffering and oppression. You are a pampered lapdog, a Liberal media darling, and you've probably never had to fight for a damn thing in your miserable short lifespan. The sad truth is that War is a constant of the human condition, and there are some things that are worth fighting for. History teaches us that when you get indifferent and lose the will to fight, some other guy who has the will to fight will take you over.

"ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ"

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart MillEnglish economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)

9,387 American military dead are interred at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. The names of an additional 1,557 Americans who lost their lives in the Normandy campaign but could not be located and/or identified are inscribed on the walls of the semicircular memorial.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Last year New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman called for space aliens to invade earth so that the government would spend money to mount a defense thereby stimulating the economy.

PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: This is hard to get people to do, much better, obviously, to build bridges and roads and healthcare clinics and schools. But my proposed, I actually have a serious proposal which is that we have to get a bunch of scientists to tell us that we're facing a threatened alien invasion, and in order to be prepared for that alien invasion we have to do things like build high-speed rail. And the, once we've recovered, we can say, “Look, there were no aliens.”

This isn't crazy ol' STORMBRINGER speaking here; this is a Nobel Prize laureate, people. Credentialled Liberal aristocracy - it doesn't get any higher. If I question Darwinism, or speak out against abortion, or gay marriage, or call out a slut/whore as a slut and a whore - all positions backed up by the Bible, by the way - then I'm an intolerant ultra-right wing Tea Party nut case. This guy seriously suggests a government massive-spending scheme involving a make-believe space alien invasion and the New York Times gives him a platform.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Pat "The Croation Sensation" Miletich is an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) legend and founder of Miletich Fighting Systems – which has trained some of the most talented fighters in MMA. Today, Pat and his team are training a different type of warrior for battle, our nation's military and law enforcement officers. Look for the full Colt Warrior Feature in the upcoming eighth issue of NRA Life of Duty’s digital magazine NRA American Warrior.

Check out the share price of Google vs. Facebook at the original asking price;

Google went public back on August 25, 2004; a total of 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share.

Facebook's initial public offering opened at $38 a share.

To the 20-something crowd it must have seemed like they were getting in on the ground floor. They got taken for a ride all right. Check out the P/E (price divided by earnings) ratio for both stocks at the same price levels:

At an offering price of $85 per share, Google was valued at $23 billion; a price-earnings ratio of 80.5, and a price-to-sales ratio of 8.5.

At a $104 billion market value, Facebook debuted at a nosebleed P/E of 91.2, and 23.7 times sales.

This is basic Investing 101. For the sin of failing to do their homework, the wet-behind-the-ears college kid crowd stuck us with President Obama. Nice going, dweebs. At least this time around the jokes on them.

For the record: I do not now, nor have I ever, "liked" anybody -or done anything else- on Facebook . . . STORMBRINGER SENDS

Friday, May 25, 2012

By David Grann - A story of love, revolution, and betrayal. From The New Yorker

William Alexander Morgan being applauded by Fidel Castro, in Havana in 1959. Morgan said that he had joined the Cuban Revolution because “the most important thing for free men to do is to protect the freedom of others.”

For a moment, he was obscured by the Havana night. It was as if he were invisible, as he had been before coming to Cuba, in the midst of revolution. Then a burst of floodlights illuminated him: William Alexander Morgan, the great Yankee comandante. He was standing, with his back against a bullet-pocked wall, in an empty moat surrounding La Cabaña—an eighteenth-century stone fortress, on a cliff overlooking Havana Harbor, that had been converted into a prison. Flecks of blood were drying on the patch of ground where Morgan’s friend had been shot, moments earlier. Morgan, who was thirty-two, blinked into the lights. He faced a firing squad.

The gunmen gazed at the man they had been ordered to kill. Morgan was nearly six feet tall, and had the powerful arms and legs of someone who had survived in the wild. With a stark jaw, a pugnacious nose, and scruffy blond hair, he had the gallant look of an adventurer in a movie serial, of a throwback to an earlier age, and photographs of him had appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. The most alluring images—taken when he was fighting in the mountains, with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara—showed Morgan, with an untamed beard, holding a Thompson submachine gun. Though he was now shaved and wearing prison garb, the executioners recognized him as the mysterious Americano who once had been hailed as a hero of the revolution.

It was March 11, 1961, two years after Morgan had helped to overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista, bringing Castro to power. The revolution had since fractured, its leaders devouring their own, like Saturn, but the sight of Morgan before a firing squad was a shock. In 1957, when Castro was still widely seen as fighting for democracy, Morgan had travelled from Florida to Cuba and headed into the jungle, joining a guerrilla force. In the words of one observer, Morgan was “like Holden Caulfield with a machine gun.” He was the only American in the rebel army and the sole foreigner, other than Guevara, an Argentine, to rise to the army’s highest rank, comandante.

After the revolution, Morgan’s role in Cuba aroused even greater fascination, as the island became enmeshed in the larger battle of the Cold War. An American who knew Morgan said that he had served as Castro’s “chief cloak-and-dagger man,” and Time called him Castro’s “crafty, U.S.-born double agent.”

Now Morgan was charged with conspiring to overthrow Castro. The Cuban government claimed that Morgan had actually been working for U.S. intelligence—that he was, in effect, a triple agent. Morgan denied the allegations, but even some of his friends wondered who he really was, and why he had come to Cuba.

Before Morgan was led outside La Cabaña, an inmate asked him if there was anything he could do for him. Morgan replied, “If you ever get out of here alive - which I doubt you will - try to tell people my story.” Morgan grasped that more than his life was at stake: the Cuban regime would distort his role in the revolution, if not excise it from the public record, and the U.S. government would stash documents about him in classified files, or “sanitize” them by concealing passages with black ink. He would be rubbed out—first from the present, then from the past.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Fort Bragg, NC - May 23, 2012 - A Fort Bragg battalion was honored Wednesday by the Canadian government in a first-ever international ceremony. Lt. Gen. Stuart Beare, commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, will present the Canadian Commander-in-Chief Unit Commendation to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group for its role in a September 2006 battle in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. It is the first time the award has been given to a non-Canadian unit.

"Canada and the United States have a long and distinguished history working together in battlefields far and abroad fighting terrorism and tyranny," Beare said in remarks Wednesday.

Members of the battalion assisted Canadian forces in an attack on an insurgent stronghold in the district of Panjwai, west of Kandahar.

The Fort Bragg Special Forces stared down a much larger enemy force over days of intense fighting to protect Canadian soldiers and hold their position.

"There was nothing but fire and smoke and bombs being dropped all over the place," recalled Canadian Lt. Col. Mel Smith.

The battle, code named Operation Medusa, is chronicled in the book "Lions of Kandahar." Over nine days, the group killed more than 500 enemy fighters, a success that paved the way for Afghan Security Forces to establish a presence in the area.

Commanders say the operation saved two villages from the Taliban and prevented the fall of Kandahar.

"You have served your nation, and you have served each other heroically. Thank you, thank you, thank you," Beare said.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

I got shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, a Squadron Commander. After I returned in 1973 . . . I published 2 books that dealt a lot with "real torture" in Hanoi. Our make-believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea what torture is.

As for me, I was put thru a mock execution because I would not respond . . . pistol whipped on the head . . . same event. Couple of days later . . . hung by my feet all day. I escaped and a couple of weeks later, I got shot and recaptured. Shot was OK . . . what happened afterwards was not.

They marched me to Vinh . . . put me in the rope trick . . . almost pulled my arms out of the sockets. Beat me on the head with a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot, unbroken hand a pulp.

Next day hung me by the arms . . . rebroke my right wrist . . . wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands . . . rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my L forefinger. So I started answering with some incredible lies.

Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck.

Hanoi . . . on my knees . . . rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.

Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.

Much kneeling - hands up at Zoo.

Really bad beating for refusing to condemn Lyndon Johnson.

Several more kneeling events. I could see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.

There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo. I was the Senior officer of a large building because of escape . . . they started a mass torture of all commanders.

I think it was July 7, 1969 . . . they started beating me with a car fan belt. In first 2 days I took over 300 strokes . . . then stopped counting because I never thought I would live thru it.

They continued day-night torture to get me to confess to a non-existent part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days. On my knees . . . fan belting . . . cut open my scrotum with fan belt stroke. Opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger. I could not lie on my back.

They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape . . . and that my 2 room-mates knew about it.

The next day I denied the lie.

They commenced torturing me again with 3- 6- or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12th . . . to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roommates again.

Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared to the world that we (U.S.) are a bunch of torturers . . . thus it will be OK to torture us next time when they catch us . . . because that is what the U.S. does.

Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one's face, or hanging a pair of women's pants over an Arabs head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.

I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness, who was also in my squadron, in jail . . . as was John McCain . . . and we agree that McCain does not speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Gharib was torture . . . or that "water boarding" is torture.

Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States. Please pass this info on . . . free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding . . . which has no after effect . . . is torture.

If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC . . . Hurrah for the guy who poured the water!!

George Everett " Bud " Day(born February 24, 1925) is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and Command Pilot who served during the Vietnam War. He is often cited as being the most decorated U.S. service member since General Douglas MacArthur, having received some seventy decorations, a majority for actions in combat. Day is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Last night I attended the world premier of Horse Soldiers of 9/11 at the GI Film Festival in Washington DC - here's the link. - at the personal invitation of this delightful creature:

Alex Quade is a remarkable person; she has earned a rare reputation within the Special Operations community as an incredibly courageous war correspondent. Alex is definitely one of us. She gets into the thick of it and is willing to go where and do what few will do.

It was an incredible gathering; an assortment of ex-Green Berets (I say ex- meaning 'out of' but I never say 'former'), members of the OSS Society, other worthy notables, and four distinguished ranking New York firefighters in dress uniform - representing the first veterans of 9/11, here on domestic soil. Alex was excited at the showing of her film and - understandibly - showing the effects of adrenalin at the end of a week of high-energy output (She'd just returned from Fort Carson on the red-eye yesterday morning where she'd been doing rapelling and fastroping with the team guys). At one point I turned to Colonel Andy Anderson - a former battalion commander of mine - and remarked, "Alex is bouncing up and down like a ping-pong ball in a popcorn machine!" but I meant this in a good way. It was her night - as much as it was a night of honor to the heroes of 9/11 - and with her film, she hit the ball right out of the park.

After the screening we bolted the reception and repaired to an eatery where words were spoken and toasts were made. When it was my turn I raised my glass to the constellation of heroes around our table; the original Horse Soldiers of 9/11, the Hero FireFighters of Ground Zero; Alex - our generation's Ernie Pyle and of course this generation's Michelangelo; sculptor Douwe Blumberg the man who honored the horse soldiers in bronze.

I am not a hero, but I served in the ranks of heroes. There was much honor present last night, and I thank Alex Quade for bringing it all together.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

5 US soldiers were tortured and killed by this terrorist scumbag - he should have faced a military commission.

Congressman Allen West is demanding answers about the Obama Administration's decision to release Ali Musa Daqduq to Iraq. Daqduq is a senior Hezbollah leader who killed 5 Americans and he should have faced trial before a military commission.

Sign Allen West’s petition demanding the President answer questions about this utter betrayal.

NRA Life of Duty Presented by Brownells has just released the trailer for their brand new Patriot Profile Feature entitled “Reclamation: The Battle for Terra Firma”. Traditionally, the Wardens of the California State Department of Fish & Game track poachers, concern themselves with wildlife preservation and conservation and emphasize the importance of hunter education. Today, these Wardens are fighting for our national security and quality of life.

Friday, May 18, 2012

I never was a Birther. My take on it is well documented here and here.

Like I have said then and I say it again now - it doesn't matter whether he was born in Hawaii, in Kenya or on the Moon; he was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court and as such he is the President of the United States.

Is he an American? The answer is yes- Barack Hussein Obama is some kind of American; certainly not the same kind of American I am. Is he a Communist? Well, in the South we say if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck . . .

Sunday, May 13, 2012

We had a little get-together yesterday, to celebrate the beginning of the Season of Grilling Meat. At one stage in the conversation it was pointed out that time-honored truism: a Liberal is simply a Conservative who hasn't been mugged yet. I remarked that no matter how flaming, left-wing a Liberal is, any and all arguments regarding the death penalty go right out the window the second you bring up child-rapists.

Tooling around the 'net today I found THIS GEM from member of Team STORMBRINGER Oswald Bastable:

In my family we have a Standard Operating Procedure for this sort of scumbag, and it does not involve the Judicial System. And the UN can go to hell - I don't remember being given the opportunity to vote for them, one way or the other.

In the words of the inimitable Judge Roy Bean: "I never saw a horse that needed stealin', but I seen a lot of men who needed hangin'."

Saturday, May 12, 2012

For those of you who regularly follow this blog can imagine, it's been a busy couple of weeks - the following is a reprint; please bear with me as I catch up with personal issues. - S.L.

Headquarters for Team STORMBRINGER Middle-East Operations has a spacious, 164-foot-long infinity pool flanked by shady, palm-studded islands. The water is temperature controlled, so it's always an oasis-like 84 degrees.

Uncle Stormy's Romanesque Villa de Tempest at the highest point in the sun-splashed Amalfi Coast, Italy; the open-air infinity pool offers unobstructed, panoramic views of one of the world's most dramatic coastlines — and the sea beyond.

When the DragonLady learned that I spent six months training and operating with the Hong Kong Constabulary Special Duties Unit, she shut me out and never spoke to me again. This photo is from happier days - DragonLady's "Endless Horizon" pool creates the almost unnerving illusion that you're floating in Victoria Harbor.

Many billionaires own their own island. Why think small? The STORMBRINGER corporate estate is a virtual city-state of warriors. Miles long, the saltwater pool requires small sail craft to navigate one's way across it.

For communing with the MotherShip and conducting Astral Travel, the temperature-controlled beach inside the pool's centrally located glass pyramid—the water and the sand are heated.

Located inside that hollowed-out volcano infiltrated by James Bond in You Only Live Twice - Team STORMBRINGER Combat Diver Training Facility has jaw-dropping vistas of Tokyo-by-Night and even venerable Mount Fuji.

Inside the massive, 347-room Palais de STORMBRINGER, Uncle Stormy fashions his life in the way of the Roman Empire via this serene, temperature-controlled 125,000 gallon bath tub.

Statues of mythological animals along the pool's perimeter at Team STORMBRINGERs private Southeast Asian R&R hideout.

Waterboarding Facility at Team STORMBRINGERs secret operational base.

REALITY CHECK:

The Pool of STORMBRINGER featuring my Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Fruits of my Labor on a hot, Sunny Summer Afternoon:

A once respectable tome that sold in 2010 year for a dollar - I don't mean per copy I mean the ENTIRE OPERATION sold itself for ONE DOLLAR! Blog STORMBRINGER pulls in at least double that every day!

Things are obviously so bad at Newsweek that they've relegating themselves to promoting pornography: Fifty Shades of Grey is a bestselling piece of smut and filth - albeit done in a tasteful way - that informs us in graphic detail of what those of us who have been around already know: women secretly like being dominated in the bedroom, and apparently the higher up in status & society the more they want to be treated like sluts and whores.

There is nothing new in the spanking scenarios depicted, blindfolding, light bondage. Once the purview of aristocratic perverts, the widespread popularity of this piece of birdcage liner only tells me that such hanky panky went mainstream a long time ago. I mean, I practically died of boredom going over the vanilla-flavored depictions - WHAT A YAWN-FEST ! ! ! - maybe I missed the part about the nude sex slave slave being put on display in a collar & leash, could not detect any shame & humilitation, no mention of being forced to drink out of the toilet, etc, etc.

But I digress. We're talking material worthy of dedicating a cover to over at Newsweek - a respectable organ that we are to take seriously - in the meantime, THIS is considered pornography? Puh-LEEEZE . . .

WHY THE BIRDS?

Perhaps this is the best time to explore why I post cheesecake pics on a site dedicated to honor, philosophy, and military themes? Simple: since time immemorial warriors have decorated chariots, ships, victory monuments and wall lockers with scanitly clad, beautiful women:

Figurehead tall ship Golden Hind

Back when it was the Army Air Corp the paint schemes on the planes were so much cooler.

Incredibly risqué in her time, Betty's coy over-the-shoulder come hither pose is now considered a timeless classic.

OK I'll stop now before I get off-topic - I could dedicate an entire post to WWII bomber nose art and pinup girls - the point is there was once a time our society was advanced and mature enough to handle images of scantily clad women, babes, dolls, femmes, dames and members of the opposite sex without a bunch of phoney offense. In carrying on this warrior tradition I'm told I'm a pornographer by 'real' journalists . . . meanwhile the Keepers of the Flame over at Newsweek pump pure filth into the direct mainstream but that's okay because it's 'cultural'. Yeah R-I-I-I-G-H-T . . .

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

A month ago I attended the Conference on Global Security at Yale where a young man who is now a colleague presented a paper on Occupy. It was pointed out that Occupy in Italy has some figureheads from the Red Brigades - to include Antonio Negri. On Monday in an upscale neighborhood of Genoa Roberto Adinolfi CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare - an Italian nuclear engineering company - was kneecapped by a motorbike shooter. The police are already wondering if the Red Brigades are back.

This is significant from many different points of view; not just the possible perpetrators, but also the nature of the target; CEO of a nuclear company. Kneecapping by bike-mounted gunman is a definite Red Brigades MO.

An intriguing aspect of the whole Occupy phenomenon is self-proclaimed anarchists embracing Marxist socialist ideals, i.e. NO-govt types seeking MORE govt involvement. The following was written before what happened in Italy so it's kind of spooky in that regard: The Reality of the Anarchist Threat and Prospects for the Future

The tent-dwelling placard-toting street-marching Occupiers are just useful idiots, tools for the behind-the-scenes people, whoever is pulling the strings.

The Tea Party

In the meantime today on the Rush Limbaugh Show a caller reported that on April 19th she attended a Tea Party rally in Louisville, where she estimated that there were somewhere between 350, 450 people there. Zero coverage in the media, of course.

The Lamestream Media thinks that the Tea Party has gone dormant, that it doesn't exist anymore. What the Left and members of the establishment Republican Party fail to grasp is that we're not a protest movement anymore; we're organizing and trying to get people oriented toward winning elections.

I know this for a fact because on 27 March I was in Washington DC - right when the Supreme Court was hearing on Obamacare. At a rest stop in I-95 in Maryland I counted 11 great big tour buses - eleven - and I thought, 'This place is going to be a madhouse.' Let me tell you; inside the place the line at the coffee counter was full of the most gracious and genteel people I've ever seen at a StarBucks - not a nose ring nor a neck tattoo in sight. It was the Tea Party, out in force and they were all so full of excitement and electricity, commenting on concepts such as Constitutional rights and individual freedoms.

Later in the week I was at the Washington DC headquarters of FreedomWorks - visitors are greeted at the door by a gigantic portrait of Ayn Rand; the place is festooned with rattlesnake flags and other Tea Party propaganda.

The Tea Party crowd is so classy, so dignified, but as far as the major news outlets; not a word about the Tea Party. Please keep going to Tea Party movements; we're alive and well.

Rush points out that the interesting thing here is, the news media is trying to convince everybody that Occupy Wall Street is alive and well and that the Tea Party is dead, when it's just the exact opposite.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The King of Thailand greeting my father & his colleagues in 1984 (the gentleman far left is Kasem Chatikavanij, General Manager of the Electrical Generating Authority of Thailand, later Minister of Industry).

Response to the news of my father's passing has been overwhelming, both in comments below, and on Twitter. I thank you all for helping me honor his memory.

As the events of the past few days unfolded, it occurred to me that I neglected to mention my Dad's sole surviving brother Guy, in many ways a role model and a mentor when I lived in Australia prior to joining the US Army. Dad's older brother Phil was an RAAF aviator in World War II - KIA in Belgium, October 1941 - his younger brother Max died in Canada at age 58 of complications due to MS. I am very close to Max's kids (my Canadian cousins); they are supporters and regular readers of Blog STORMBRINGER.

During my meditations I also recollect my father's guidance that we always speak the English language properly, that we always use correct grammer and enunciation - "The Queens English". He stated that the single most important subject to learn in school is English, because this is the first impression by which people will judge you.

Dad admired Winston Churchill, pointing out that despite a speech impediment Churchill managed to become Prime Minister of Great Britain and is amongst the greatest speakers of the English language.

My father spoke clear concise English with almost no trace of Australian accent (which proves it is not a dialect but rather an attitude, and that there is a cure). He also spoke Malay (Bahasa Indonesia) and Thai. Most people assumed Dad was English; which by birth he was, of course, although just this week I was surprised when he explained to the nurse that he normally did not advertise his English birth because he left when he was six months old and was raised Australian.

Friday, May 4, 2012

I'm sitting in my Dad's office at his home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina - Dad slipped his moorings and crossed over to the Other Side, last night at 2040 hours local.

Dad died peacefully in his sleep in front of the TV, surrounded by the momentos of a lifetime in Asia. He fell asleep at about noon and never woke up. His last words to me before he drifted off were, "Check the price on BP, see if there are any calls to sell."

Dad was 87. The second of four sons, born in London, England, my Dad was raised in Victoria, Australia, in pubs owned and operated by his Dad. My Dad wanted to be an artist, but had to leave school after the 8th grade to help support his family during the Great Depression. He continued his education in night school until the age of 36.

During World War II, Dad worked as an apprentice machinist and later a draftsman in the shipyards at Williamstown, Victoria, repairing US and Royal Australian Navy warships. He told me how he once went out on a test cruise on a Dutch submarine, "The minute they sealed the hatches and went down, everything smelled like a fart."

After the war, my Dad worked as a manager for an engineering equipment firm in Broken Hill, New South Wales, and enjoyed riding his motorcycle in the desert.

In 1959 - when I was six months old - Dad emigrated to the United States, where he worked as an engineer in Seattle Washington and Oakland California, on bridge and crane projects, as well as rocket gantries for NASA's Project Mercury.

In 1961 Dad took a contract building a urea fertilizer processing plant in Sumatra, Indonesia, beginning a three-decade career in Asia, which included building power plants in Bangladesh and Thailand, and a water treatment plant in Turkey.

Dad was also an investor and devoted long hours to the markets, making and losing several fortunes over the decades. He was proud the day he became a US citizen at a ceremony that I attended, at Fort Bragg. Late in life Dad returned to his art, painting in oils, like the one above. He won several local contests and sold his works for a decent sum.

My Dad is survived by his third wife of 10 years, Ruth. He was married for 45 years to my mother, who passed away twelve years ago. He is survived by four sons and a daughter, twelve grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

He was a great Dad - I couldn't have asked for better. He gave me an upbringing full of fun, travel and adventure - to him I owe my thirst for wanderlust, my accomplishments in engineering, and my gift for languages. Dad was always there for me, did so many things for me. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to be here for him as he went down the Last Trail.

Goodbye Dad - you were a one-off, a Leader of the Pack. You will be missed by many.